Italian President Giorgio Napolitano, marking the 62nd anniversary of Italy's liberation from Fascism, sought on Wednesday to defuse the political tensions that the celebrations traditionally bring.
"It's a celebration for all Italians," Napolitano said, referring obliquely to a common feeling that the political left feels the occasion more strongly than the Right.
A postwar tradition has always seen April 25, 1945, as the moment when a divided Italy rallied behind Resistance leaders to raise the country from the ashes and recover its patriotic honour.
Communists and leftwingers played a key role in the Italian resistance and their political descendants are sometimes accused of seeing Liberation celebrations as a private party.
Napolitano's implicit call for such disputes to be left behind came during a visit to the Greek island of Cephalonia, where he was commemorating a now famous episode involving Italian soldiers in World War II.
Some 9,500 men in the Acqui division under General Antonio Gandin died after refusing to surrender arms to German soldiers in the confusion following the 1943 armistice with the Allies.
In a speech, Napolitano said the Italian soldiers' gesture was motivated by the same patriotic impulse that matured in Italy in the spirit of the Resistance.
In this sense, there was a "bridge" between the Resistance movement in Italy and the soldiers on Cephalonia, he said.
Meanwhile, parades and rallies dotted Italy on Wednesday as the country marked Liberation Day, which is a national holiday.
Premier Romano Prodi, attending a ceremony in Rome, said he believed the country was on the way to a "reconciliation" of the political tensions connected to Liberation Day celebrations.
"More time is needed, but I think we're on the right track," he said.
Centre-right opposition leader Silvio Berlusconi did not attend any of the events organised around the country.
The head of his Forza Italia party told reporters who asked about this decision that "No one appreciates the meaning of this celebration more than Berlusconi."
